It Could've Been Great
by goldfish400
Summary: It's no secret that Maui's fascinated by humanity. He's always been. But it's not until after he meets Moana that he realizes his fascination is far more complicated than he could ever imagine. It lies not only in how they live, how they're constantly growing and changing, but it also lies in who they grow up with. Who helps shape them to be the person they are. It lies in family.


It's no secret that Maui's fascinated by humanity. He's always been.

In the very beginning, it was more fascination in their means of survival. How they can eat some food raw or cold but refuse to touch others unless they've been cooked. How they can spend hours and hours during the daylight active and fully alert, but once the moon comes out they enter a slumber so deep that they can't be woken from it until the sun begins to rise again.

Much later down the road, that fascination for their survival became _concern._ Why, if they use fire to cook their food, do they not use it to warm themselves up at night? Why does the appearance of the moon leave those plagued by insomnia shivering? Why does the burning sun during the days seem to rid of those who are unable to handle the intensity of its heat?

Those questions, Maui could do something about. He could quell his concern by helping them out. If they're too cold during the nights he could pay good ol' Mahuika a visit to "borrow" some of her fire to give to them. If the sun moved too quickly for them he could throw a lasso around it and slow it until it was moving at a pace they were satisfied with. If the sky was pushing down too hard on their backs, he could reach up and push it upwards until they were all standing up straight.

And for thousands of years, he was convinced that's all his fascination was. A desire to help that could be dispelled once he fixed whatever problem they were having. Whether he purposefully chose to ignore his own human origins whenever this fascination came up, or if they were simply not on his mid at the time, Maui thinks ruefully, he's not entirely sure.

It's Moana that reminds him his fascination is there at all.

It's after Te Fiti, when she's walking him through her village. Something about just watching her people go about their daily businesses caught his attention in a way they hadn't in millennia. Except, he realized later, that none of them were in danger. He wasn't showing interest in the group of dancers teaching themselves new _hakas_ to old songs because he was concerned for their safety. He didn't roll his eyes at the group of kids kicking around an empty coconut shell like a ball of some sort because he was afraid of what might happen if they're not careful with it. He was simply interested because, well, humanity was interesting to him.

No longer does he find fascination in the way they keep themselves alive. No longer does he follow them where they go, concerned for their safety. No longer does he watch over them, making sure they're always safe and content wherever they are (with one exception, but it's not like that's much of a secret either). Now, he finds fascination in the way they live, and in the way they grow up.

Moana, unsurprisingly, is the best example he can think of. To think that the loud, exuberant chief to-be he knows used to need help walking around on her own two feet makes him roll his eyes in amusement. The thought that she was once the same age as the kids he saw kicking around coconut shells to pass time makes him snicker. The thought of Moana _actually_ kicking around coconut shells to pass time almost makes him laugh out loud.

And it's Moana who makes him realize that his fascination goes much deeper than he thought it did.

Because the thing that catches his attention the most is how she interacts with Tui and Sina. Her parents. They raised her from birth, and they know far more about her than he can begin to imagine. They raised her from an infant that was small enough to be cradled in one arm to a proud teenager full of life. They raised her, and she spent a good portion of her childhood with them. Yet, she's a completely individual person with her own personality and her own dreams and her own desires.

His fascination lies not just in _how_ humanity lives and grows, but also _who they grow with._

It lies with family.

That thought brings him down to the beach, to a closed off little cove where the stars shine just a bit brighter, by himself, no curly haired chief to-be to keep him company.

Family.

He's never really had a family before.

Growing up, many of the Gods who raised him were distant. Maui knows that they didn't mean to be, and that they spent time with him when they could, but he was always an afterthought, the one they payed attention to after they were finished with everything else they needed to get done. He was never their first priority, never who they turned to first when he needed them. So sure, maybe they were his family on technical terms. They may have raised him, but it certainly didn't feel like a family to him.

Unconsciously, his mind drifts back to Moana.

And he wonders, distantly, how things might've turned out if he were more like her.

If his mother, his _real_ mother had kept him and raised him instead of tossing him into the sea.

"Maui?" Moana's voice interrupts so suddenly that he starts at his own name. He doesn't need to turn around to see the frown plastered to her face. "Are you okay?"

"Fine" Maui waves her off dismissively. "You just...startled me, is all" he says, because it's not exactly a lie. "I was just...thinking"

Less than a single heartbeat passes before the sand shifts next to him as Moana sits down beside him. "Are you sure?" She asks. "Because you know you can tell me anything if something's bothering you, right?"

She turns her gaze toward him and smiles, and every wall he was preparing to put up crumbles to pieces at the sight. He sighs, and leans back on his hands to turn his gaze more towards the stars.

"Do you remember when I told you a while back," Maui starts. "That I've always been fascinated in humanity? About how I always thought it was really interesting how you guys went about going about your daily lives?"

Moana blinks, like that's not what she was expecting to hear. "Yeah?"

"Well," Maui shrugs. "I think there's more to it than that. Earlier today I was just watching you and your parents interact, and it really got me thinking" he pauses, and turns to her, and holds up a hand to ease the unspoken apology from her expression.

"Trust me, you've got nothing to be sorry for, kid." he says, and her expression eases up after she regards him for a moment. "It's actually pretty interesting."

Maui shifts so he's facing her more directly. "I never told you what it was like growing up with the Gods" he starts, and snorts. "And, well, that's because it was really underwhelming. A few of them would volunteer to look after me for shifts at a time, and it was usually those who had the least amount of work to do. But even then, they were still Gods, and they still had a lot of work they needed to get done".

He puffs out a quiet sigh between his cheeks. "They were distant, Moana. Never cold, and never harsh, but they didn't have a lot of time for me. They were always too busy with something else to really pay much attention to me at all". He drops his gaze away from the stars, and laughs sheepishly as he turns his gaze back towards her. He brings a hand to the back of his head and rubs at it awkwardly. "I sometimes think that, uh, that's about when I started playing so many tricks on people".

Even in the dim starlight he can see Moana bringing her hand up to her mouth. "Because you were looking for attention" she whispers, and shakes her head. "That's awful"

"It was" he sighs, and waves a dismissive hand. "Anyway, point is," he says. "The Gods may have raised me, which I _guess_ makes them my family, but I've never thought of them that way."

"But _you_ ," Maui starts, gently jabbing a finger in her direction, but he retracts it and immediately drops it down to his side when Moana winces at the gesture. Maui frowns. "You've always had a family. You've got you parents; you've got your island, you've got all these people you've spent your entire life growing up with".

Maui shrugs. "And, well….meeting all of them's gotten me thinking. What if-" he starts, and squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep breath before he continues on. "What if...what if my mother _didn't_ throw me away? What if...what if she loved me? If I got to live a normal human life?" he asks, and doesn't dare take his eyes off of the stars because if just _feeling_ Moana's gaze burning into him hurts as much as it does then he can't even _imagine_ what turning to meet it would do to him. "If the gods never found me drifting alone at sea. If they never gave me my hook."

What if? What if he never became a demigod? Would the sky still push down on humanity's backs? Would the sun still move too fast? Would the nights still be too cold without the warmth of the fire of the underworld?

What about Te Fiti? Would another succeed at stealing her heart? Would Moana travel with _them_ across the sea to restore it?

"Sometimes…" he muses. "I wonder if she can see me. If she's watching me up there, with the rest of the Gods who raised me" he drops his gaze from the stars, and shakes his head. "I wonder what she'd think of me now. If….if she ever regrets what she did to me"

A silence, long and deafening, is what follows. At first Maui thinks he's said too much, and that Moana left, and a heavy sigh shutters out of him at the thought. He goes to turn away from where he thinks she was once sitting, to stand and walk away, but then two arms go flying around his torso and a small body barrels into his chest and he freezes.

"Well…" Moana's voice starts, and she squeezes him in a tight hug. "I think you're pretty great"

And those five words are invitation enough for him. Maui reciprocates her gesture, gently wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer to him. He takes a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm his breathing, and he drops his head down to bury it in Moana's shoulder.

"Hey, hey, you're okay" Moana reassures him, and adjusts her arms around him, rubbing little circles into his inked skin in a soothing gesture. "I'm here" she murmurs, and moves one of her hands away from his back to place it gently against the side of his head.

"Do you want to know what I think?" she asks, but doesn't wait for him to respond before she continues on. "I think if it takes your mother _thousands_ of years to see how good you are, to see what a stupid mistake she made, then she doesn't deserve you at all." she shakes her head. "If it takes her seeing you accomplish all of these great feats to even think about wanting you back, then you're not the one she really wants. She wants your accomplishments. She wants the heroic side of you that's not really you at all. Moana shakes her head. "You don't deserve someone who thinks like that".

"What you _do_ deserve is a real family. A family who listens, a family to take care of you" Moana emphasizes, and leans her head gently against his. "You don't need to wonder what your family would think of you, like they're some distant group of people you can't reach. Your family's here, on Motunui." a short pause. "Your family's with me." she moves her hand away from the side of his head, and when he finally finds the courage to meet her gaze he finds fondness of the likes he's _never_ seen before in her eyes.

"And we all love you, Maui, far more than your mother ever could".

As her words settle, as he's trying and failing to move past the _affection_ shining in her expression, he slowly realizes that...yeah, she's right.

If his mother never threw him away, then sure, he would've lived a normal human life.

But he would've lived thousands of years in the past. Everyone he's grown to know and love wouldn't be born for thousands and thousands of years. He would've died far before any of them were ever even born.

Moana.

If his mother hadn't thrown him away, he never would've met Moana. He never would've met this brave, incredible human he's more than proud to call his best friend.

And that thought alone is almost enough to make him laugh. Living without ever meeting Moana, without ever finding his true family?

Well, losing that wouldn't be worth anything in the world.


End file.
